It is, says David Pipe, "the family business," and if Pipe & Son Horse Racing Ltd were allowed into the National Hunt championship as a joint venture, they would currently stand a long way clear of the field in the race for the next title. Unfortunately for the junior partner, though, a brief delay in obtaining his licence following Martin Pipe's sudden retirement last month means that two valuable winners he saddled at Haydock soon afterwards did not count towards his prizemoney total. While David Pipe sits seventh in the early stages after six winners, the current leader, as so often over the last 20 years, is M C Pipe.

"He keeps reminding me about that, and he says it's going to be a while yet before I get past him," David says. "It could make for a good trivia question one day, which trainer was top of the championship for months after he'd retired. It would be nice to be top of the table, but I just have to be happy that I've got six winners on the board already and the first month has gone very well."

Martin Pipe was not even in Europe when Acambo and Westender completed a double worth nearly £60,000 in his name, having flown off for a holiday shortly after announcing his decision to retire.

He is back now to offer support and advice, however, and though he is still ahead of his son in the prizemoney table, David can take consolation from the thought that six winners in a month is more than his father managed in his first five seasons with a licence.

"Dad taught himself to train, so for the first few years it was very much a case of trial and error," David says. "Now that I've got the licence, he doesn't expect me to do everything exactly the same way that he did it, but at the same time, if I want to change something, he'll be interested to know why.

"No-one would ever believe that he wasn't going to be around here a lot of the time. It's the family business, and I'm just very lucky to have been able to take over with all the owners, the horses, the staff and the facilities already in place."

There are, he insists, no targets for his first season with a licence, though he is only 7-1 to win the championship with Paddy Power, and Ladbrokes go just 9-2. Even without those two valuable winners in early May, he could well be at the front of the field when jumps racing begins again in earnest in the autumn.

"We've got quite a few fast-ground horses in for the summer racing," he says, "though there's not much we can do with them at the moment as we've had so much rain, even for the west country. Who'd have thought that Newton Abbot would be called off for waterlogging when it's nearly June? Perhaps we should bring some of the others in early.

"But all I want to do this season is put as many winners as possible on the board, and maybe win a nice race or two along the way. It's a year-round job, and there's no time for anything else, but training is like anything else, if you want to do it in a really professional way, there will always be sacrifices to be made."

Pipe is at the Doncaster Sales this week as the process of replenishing the boxes for another long campaign begins. No matter how many horses are stabled at Pond House, though, one factor will remain constant in the family regime.

"What you always have to do with horses is to treat each one as an individual," Pipe says. "Just like humans, every one of them has their own personality, their little quirks, and they like to feel happy and confident.

"There are always going to be horses that frustrate you, but when you keep trying and then you find the key to them, it really is immensely satisfying."